Date:         Sat, 9 Nov 96 20:26:14 EST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         jag@cs.rochester.edu
Subject:      Report: auto repair shop contents auction.

Real estate and contents of an auto repair shop was up for auction in
a nearby town today. This doesn't happen every day (or even year)
here, and the shop was also advertised as a "Mercedes
specialist". Time for a road trip! I was hoping to score some metric
tools, nuts and bolts, and perhaps some Bosch diesel fuel injection
stuff.

The '82 westy diesel was humming unusually happy on the way to the
auction. I parked near a white A1 Golf (vw content). Rest of the
visitors came in either contractor labeled trucks or other generic
80ies Detroit iron. Auction was crowded.

Now the "contents" were a real disappointment to me. I didn't find a
single metric tool, neither any metric fasteners nor very many
Mercedes parts. Mercedes specialist ha! (or perhaps the more useful
stuff had "disappeared" before the public auction.)

After looking through almost everything I finally saw something
familiar: A Bosch diesel fuel injector tester. A few strokes with the
hand pump revealed that it was completely dry. Hmm, I wonder if the
plunger can survive this. It was sad to see its state of disrepair.

The lot with the fuel injector tester was positioned so it was going
to be among the last to be sold. I wasn't interested in waiting around
several hours for just this item. Instead I bid on a few cabinets with
fasteners. SAE bolts are at least usable for some exhaust mounting and
the like. I dropped out when the bids exceeded my projected "hobbyist"
lifetime spending on these items.

My score for the day was a bike rack and (old) bike. I was the only
bidder. $1! Now, how do I mount the bike rack to the front of my
Westy?  Other best deals of the day went to the guy who bought a
really mint mid 70's Cadillac (nicht mein Bier) for $600, and the one
who bought the residence of the repair shop owner, a nice 2 story
brick colonial, for a mere 57k.  A young mother of two bought a '75
Mercedes 280, the only import on the lot, for $200. I felt some
kinship with the woman (after all Mercedes is also German), and though
about going over to talk with her.  Before that happened however, her
husband showed up. Better not cause any misunderstandings.

On the way home I payed my first ever visit to a Burger king drive
through. One step further towards integration with American culture!
(Why do people wait 10min in the drive through line when you can
clearly see that there is no wait inside?)

/Martin (and somewhat disappointed '82 diesel Westy)